Planned Parenthood Supports Adoption?

November is National Adoption Month. Imagine my surprise that I first learned about this on the home page of Planned Parenthood‘s website. A few weeks ago, on PPFA’s website, in the “Highlights” section in the lower right hand corner was a link with the message “November Is National Adoption Month”, which took you to the section of their website on adoption. The “November Is National Adoption Month” feature is no longer on their home page, and as far as I can tell, there’s currently no longer any acknowledgment of this month’s designation anywhere on the site. A glance at the calendar tells you that we are still very much in the month of November. Under normal circumstances, one would expect that such a feature would remain in place all month long. Considering Planned Parenthood’s record on adoption referrals over the last five years, however, it’s not surprising at all:

Adoption Referrals to Other Agencies 2000/01: 2,486 2001/02: 1,951 2002/03: 1,963 2003/04: 1,774 2004/05: 1,414

Compare these numbers with its abortion figures over the same time period:

Abortion Procedures 2000/01: 197,070 2001/02: 213,026 2002/03: 230,630 2003/04: 244,628 2004/05: 255,015 (HT: Jim Sedlak of STOPP for the stats.)

Anyone care to speculate as to the mysterious disappearance of the “November is National Adoption Month” feature from Planned Parenthood’s website? I found the whole thing odd to begin with. The notion that Planned Parenthood actually cares about adoption is about as believable as the notion that Duff Beer actually cares about the designated driver program:

Duffman: Duffman wants to party down with the man who sent in 10,000 Duff labels to bring me here today. I’ve got a bottomless mug of new Duff Extra Cold for, Barney Gumbel! All: Chug! Chug! Chug! Chug! Chug! Chug! Barney: I can’t, I’m the designated driver! (Everything stops) Duffman: Yeah that’s swell, Duff wholeheartedly supports the designated driver program. Now! Who wants to Party!

Or, watch it: